Bolshoi reopens in grand style

Politicians, models and ballerinas gathered at a gala concert on Friday night to celebrate the reopening of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow after a renovation that took six years to complete.

The lavish event started when a choir dressed as building workers launched into an aria from Mikhail Glinka’s Ivan Susanin and culminated in an adagio from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, featuring principal ballerina Svetlana Zakharova. It also included performances from French soprano Natalia Dessay and Lithuanian soprano Violeta Urmana.

Ivan Vasilyev became the youngest dancer ever to play the role of Spartacus in Aram Khachaturian's Spartacus.

Baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky sang an aria from Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades.

The two-hour program also included a performance from ballerina Natalia Osipova.

Alexander Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances featured a hammer and sickle on the main stage’s curtain, a nod to the Soviet era, when the Bolshoi hosted party conferences as well as ballet.

Alexander Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances featured a hammer and sickle on the main stage’s curtain, a nod to the Soviet era, when the Bolshoi hosted party conferences as well as ballet.

The gala also included Shostakovich’s tango from the Golden Age ballet, featuring Nina Kaptsova and Pavel Dmitrichenko.

Stage lights and decorations changed throughout the night. The show also featured video installations.

The show ended with an artist come-together on the stage to a standing ovation from the audience.